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Book Reviews

from Andrew Jackson's capture of Spanish Pensacola in November 1814,through the battle of New Orleans, and to the British assault against Fort Bowyerat Mobile Point in February 1815. These maps, enclosed in a packet accompany-ing the book, are handsomely reproduced and even suitable for framing. Inaddition to the maps, a lengthy appendix includes relevant British andAmerican documentary sources, collected by Latour and published in the book'sfirst edition. It should be noted that the 1999 expanded edition of the HistoricalMemoir includes additional documents, which were compiled by Latour, but notpreviously published in his account.Latour's narrative is especially worthwhile to historians because it was writtenso close in time to the events it describes. While aiming to be fair, Latour gavevent to his political views and the passions of war. He acknowledged British mili-tary bravery, but loathed alleged British war crimes, including the carrying awayof slaves from American plantations. He defended Jean Lafitte's buccaneers aslawful "privateers," and approved Jackson's reliance upon them in battle. Latourwas greatly concerned with vindicating the honor of French Louisianans, whosepatriotism was frequently questioned in the United States prior to the Battle ofNew Orleans. His book, now published in such a beautiful manner, should longbe consulted by readers interested in the War of 1812.University of Texas at Arlington David E. NarrettHorse Sweat and Powder Smoke: The First Texas Cavalry in the Civil War. Stanley S.McGowen. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999. Pp. xv+223.Photographs, drawings, maps, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-89096-903-5.$29.95, cloth.)Stanley McGowen, a TCU Ph.D., presents a thoroughly researched, compre-hensively detailed narrative of a unit that served effectively in every region andagainst every opponent of Confederate Texas, shifting from frontier defense inCentral Texas (where its members were largely recruited) to coastal patrollingand service in the Red River Campaign against Union regulars. McGowen'smeticulous account includes analyses of the ethnic, occupational, and geograph-ical origins of the regiment's soldiers and their lives in camp and field. Severalsignificant conclusions emerge: probably atypically, 35 percent were born out-side the South, 21 percent outside the U.S., 12 percent in Germany (p. xii), andfrom 1863 on, the regiment's commanding officers were German. The regimentwas also "rather unique" (p. xi) in its discipline and cohesion (most evident inan extremely low desertion rate, even in the spring of 1865), and in beingarmed and trained in the use of the sabre (which the author attributes to itsGerman commanders). McGowen persuasively depicts its attack on the Unionistemigrants led by Frederick Tegener as part of an ongoing partisan conflict: theUnionists' arms and their quest to join Federal forces in Mexico made themcombatants, justifying the assault, against which they defended themselves aswell as could be expected given their numerical inferiority. Nevertheless, themurder of wounded Unionist prisoners was neither reported nor punished by